My customer of 15 years just bought a house out of foreclosure and it happens to have a pretty extensive Crestron system installed in it. The following equipment is installed on premise=

2 @ CNX-BIPAD8 Audio Distribution Processor
1 @ CNX-PVID8x3 Video Distribution Processor
1 @AV2 Audio Video Control Processor
1 @ CNPWS-75 out board power supply( 24v)
1 @ CNHBlock
1@ STX-1200C ( hand held controller)
7 @ CNX-B12( 12 button keypad) ? with extremely actractive stickers on all buttons
2 @ 10 button in wall touch panel keypads( model #'s ?)
1 @CNAMPX 16x 60 amplifier

Original installation company unknown( good thing, I have never seen such an abominantion of wiring on such a complex av job in my 20 plus years of experience)

My questions are as followes:

most everything powers up except the CNX-AV2,
the BIPAD8's & CNX-PVID8x3 and the 2 touch panel keypads all power up but the CNXB12 hard button keypads do not. The CNH block has power lights on all appropriate led's.

From looking at the back panel of the AV2 it has a 110 v power plug and a 24v(net) 4 pin molex style plug. From documentation on the Crestron site One would assume that the unit needs 110v for powering itself. All other devices power from the outboard power supply(CNPWS-75).

I cannot figure out why the AV2 will not power up unless it is defective, it has 110v at the power inlet to to unit. Just not quite sure what would cause the AV2 to not power up? Anyway of reintializing the unit?

Now the issue of the hard button keypads to not power up considering they are wired to the CNH block just like the touch panel kepads are ? Hmmm

The other question is whether or not any reputable Crestron dealer can extract the file from this system to do some simple component changes or does the programming need to be started from scratch?

Also the hand held touch panel STX-1200C powered up for 5 seconds when originally touched but when put in the charging cradle the CHG button just flashed on/off red color instead of being a steady red color, don't know if that correct or not?

My customer just wants to know what they are getting into before wasting alot of money on a system that is miles above thier technical ability or know how.

Any HELPFUL responses are appreciated,

Barry

Programming needs to start from scratch and based on most of the systems I run into the field it would most likely be a good idea to do so anyway.

As far as keypads not powering up.. they could be powered up but just not be programmed or communicating in which case it would appear that they are not powered.

+1 The lights on those keypad buttons need to be programmed to light up. Generally they light up as feedback from the button press. If the processor is dead you wouldn't see this happen.

Programming cannot be extracted from the processor so without the original source code, it will need to be re-programmed from scratch.

Thanks for the info, I kinda figured that they were screwed on the programming issue. Now I need to find out how much money and effort they want to put into resurrecting this system. Any thoughts on how much programming time it would take to set up a tuner, cd changer and satellite receiver( Directv) for house audio and possibly avr and tv if the hand held touch panel comes back to life?

Thanks for the input,

Barry

Disconnect the Cresnet (4-pin phoenix), I/O ports and relay ports, then try powering the AV2 again. Unexpected voltage on those pins can do fun things to the power supply. If it still doesn't come up, it's hosed.

Want to point out that theres possibly more equipment that youre not seeing, if there are 2 bipads and only 1 amp I would guess that there are some CNXRMCLVs around the house possibly by the TVs, also there must be a gate way somewhere for that remote.

The AV2 should power up as long as it is plugged in to an outlet. If its not then it could be dead.
There is no way to extract the program so as others have said it will need to be redone from scratch.

The AV2 does get it's power from the 110V plug. I assume that you've tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?

The others get their power in part from the AV2 and in part from the CNPWS.

They 10-button TP is probably a TPS-2000.

CJ

It seems your customer got a very nice and powerful Crestron system with the house. Since most of the equipment is current except the touchpanels I would team up with a CAIP or Crestron dealer and give a proposal to fix the system.
1) I would offer a MTX-3 or MLX-3 remote for each tv
2) Ipads in place of the wireless touchpanels
3) Replace wall touchpanels with newer ones if they do not work or if needed
4) Expand the system to control HVAC and lighting since it is perfectly capable to do so if you can set up the infrastructure

AV2 should power up off of 110. Like someone else mentioned, unplug everything from the back of it and plug it into 110, if it still does not light on the front, then it is broken. If the power supply is at fault, then it is possible to power it off of external 24VDC. You can feed +24V from the Crestron power supply if you wish. For testing purposes, you can take a tap from the existing CNPWS-75. For long term usage, though, you should either have the AV2 repaired or purchase another CNPWS-75 expressly for powering the AV2, as the existing one does not have enough juice to feed that whole system that way. It is very important that you do not ever feed external power to the AV2 AND plug it into AC... should probably put some sort of plug w/ note over the IEC receptacle if you decide to go this route.

If the power supply is bad, out of curiosity, the most likely reason is that the original installers did not wire the block / AV2 / power properly. The 4-pin going from the AV2 to the CNHBLOCK should only have y,z,G wired. There should NOT be 24V going between the block and the AV2. The CNPWS75 should be wired to the block using all 4, 24,y,z,G. The CNPWS75 only has 75 watts of supply, while the component there require in excess of that amount in theory. It is close enough where the system would run, but not a good idea to hook up the entire load to the single power supply. The AV2 has 50watts of supply coming out of it's Cresnet buss, so what I would have done, is powered the PVID directly from the AV2 and powered everything else off of the block... there are lots of ways to skin that cat, including using auxiliary power supplies, so you'll have to do a bit of investigative research.

Thaanks, I will try to unplug everything from the unit and see if it powers up with just 110 ac. Is it possible to get the unit repaired without being a Crestron dealer or does it need to go thru a dealer for repair?

On the handheld touch panel, the "CHG" was blinking red when we set up the charger and docked the TP, is this correct or should the "CHG" light come on continuous red until it is fully charged? Sorry for the lameness of the question but just trying to get the appropriate info for the client before I turn them over to someone I have no experience with didn't have a good exp.with the last Crestron guy I tried to use a few years ago:(

Thanks for all the great responses and no flaming.

Barry

Barry where are you located?

Nor-cal, for those who know what it means:)

I understand that you have your own company but I would find a local company that has been doing Crestron for a while to "consult" with you on this. There should be quite a few companies around you that are qualified. Be up front and honest with them. Have them tell you what they can do with the system that is in place. Have them recommend to you any upgrades they think should be done. And have them do the programming. But make sure you get the uncompiled source code. This way you aren't married to them.

Good luck.

I am going to be in Nor-cal next week........

Flame ON. Cd changer? Really?